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Culture In gentrified , one link remains to a Jewish folk past By Andrew Silverstein

In 2017, Amanda Foley, the location scout for “The Slatnick, 77, the store’s second owner in 63 years. “It Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” needed a place to shoot a was always crowded with people buying records.” record store scene. It’s a challenge to find interiors But, even before the pandemic, competition with that fit the storyline of the series’ main character chains and online businesses had taken a toll on the Midge Maisel, a wealthy Jewish housewife who dives store and the music business in general. Guitar Center, into the Village scene of the late 50s and early 60s. On the nation’s largest music retailer, filed for bankruptcy the outside, preservation laws ensure Greenwich in November. The landlord has been supportive, but Village looks the same, but step inside and it’s clear: after being closed for three months because of COVID, This is not the Village of bohemians and cheap rents. Slatnick has struggled to pay rent. Nevertheless, he When Foley walked into The Music Inn — a cramped still can be found at the store six days a week, picking world instrument shop with a forest of Russian at his sitar or repairing an African djembe. Slatnick, balalaikas, Japanese kotos and African harps dangling with his unkempt white beard, holds court to the from every inch of the ceiling — she knew she found regulars and curious passersby visiting the old wise her spot. man of the Village.

“It’s authentic and iconic and perfect for the time ‘A SECULARIZED JEWISH WORLD’ period,” she says. 1958 was an opportune time to be in the The Music Inn at 169 West Fourth Street opened in business. That year, “Tom Dooley” by the Kingston Trio 1958, the same year the show was set. It became one topped the Billboard charts. Suddenly, folk music of few locations to appear as itself, showing up in didn’t just mean singing around a campfire or passing several episodes. At most filming locations, the crew a hat in ; you could also make must redress the set with period pieces, but not the a living. Jerry Halpern, the son of Polish Jewish Music Inn. “It was already there: the instruments, the immigrants to and a Korean War vet, took records, the shelving,” Foley said. “It’s so awesome. advantage. He returned to New York after bumming Every time I walk in there, somebody’s playing some around the country for two years. Between his GI Bill instrument — just people hanging out, socializing. It’s benefits and savings from his wife (the poet and artist what I would imagine the Village was actually like.” Janet Richmond), he scraped together enough to open Her instincts are right. Suze Rotolo, in “A Freewhellin’ his hole-in-the-wall music shop. Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties” Halpern was far from the only Jew on the scene. Next recalls the shop in 1961 as “an impossibly cluttered door was Allan Block, the violin-playing cobbler whose store that sold every kind of musical instrument ever sandals became the de rigueur footwear of the 60s. made in the entire world.” Rotolo, who was Bob Over on MacDougal, Izzy Young, Dylan’s future Dylan’s girlfriend, recounts the couple’s time living mentor, had just opened the iconic Folklore Center down the block. According to her, “Musicians would after quitting his family’s kosher bakery in Borough just come and play at Allan Block’s,” a sandal shop Park; Moe Asch, the son of Yiddish writer Sholem Asch, next door that was a folk epicenter. “If they didn’t have headed the influential Folkway Records; and Ramblin an instrument, they could go to the Music Inn and Jack Elliot, a Jew from Brooklyn, passed as a singing borrow one.” cowboy. “Many second-generation Jews tried to “The store was very successful and booming,” says Jeff escape their fairly insular Jewish families. They

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escaped that by plunging into what they saw as restores and builds instruments. He filled both a counter culture Americana,” said Jonathan Karp, a practical and spiritual void of the store. historian who studies the connections of Jews and In the early 2000s, Halpern developed Parkinson’s American popular music, “but the irony was that they disease. “His wife passed away, he had no children, I were entering into another kind of secularized Jewish took care of him,” Slatnick said. “He stopped coming to world.” the store and found a new life. He started to write In the early 60s, the folk revival’s focus expanded from poetry.” As his Parkinson’s progressed, Slatnick Americana to international music, and Halpern brought him large felt markers to continue writing. established the Music Inn as a world music destination. When he passed in 2010, Halpern willed the Music Inn Slatnick, the son of Jews who had immigrated to to Slatnick. Newark, first visited the store in 1967. He had a gig ‘LAST MAN STANDING’ playing sitar at the groundbreaking rock and roll disco, the Electric Circus and he needed strings. Impressed By the time Slatnick took over the store, the 1960s folk by Slatnick’s knowledge of instruments, Halpern hired music revival was just another line in West Fourth him to be a salesperson. For Slatnick, the job was a Street’s long bohemian resume. Allan Block’s sandal way to meet other musicians. “I can remember playing store is now Coppola Café. On display is the album with people who were famous like Phil Ochs and David cover of “The Freewheelin’ ,” featuring a Van Ronk, jamming with them and then getting gigs,” young Dylan and Rotolo walking arm-in-arm just 50 he says. feet out the cafe’s front door. Across the street is Amano Café, which serves $5 lattes. A vintage After a few months, Slatnick moved to California to mandolin banjo and a brokedown brass euphonium study Indian classical music under the legendary Ali serve as taxidermied specimens of an off-beat past. Akbar Khan. He returned to work at the shop in 1976. Only at the Music Inn do records and instruments have By then, Halpern had accumulated an instrument life in them. collection worthy of a museum but in a setting akin to a family’s cluttered attic: priceless heirlooms “He’s the last man standing.” Mitch Borden, founder of haphazardly mixed with decades-old tchotchkes. the popular Village jazz club Smalls, says of Slatnick. “This zarb is probably 450 years old. It’s from the “It’s unbelievable what Jeff is doing: supplying Persian Jewish community of Isfahan,” Slatnick tells musicians at the lowest cost with instruments. It’s a me, pointing to an exquisite drum with inlaid turquoise very strange labor of love.” It’s not just fair pricing, but stars of David outlined in gold. It sits next to a the range of options. In 2016, when asked about the Swingline stapler and near child-sized ukuleles. more exotic sounds on his album “Stranger to Halpern found the instrument at a flea market. “It Stranger,” Paul Simon answered: “The Music Inn, down was blackened from a fire, and they thought it was in the Village. They have a lot of unusual instruments… a vase,” says Slatnick, who painstakingly restored it I’ve known that store forever.” And , when Jimmy decades ago. Fallon played odd instruments for his “Random Instrument Challenge” with Pete Davidson on a recent ater, Halpern amassed a treasure trove of African art. show, who did he rent them from? Slatnick, of course. With his long red hair and thick mustache, he fit the profile of a Village musician, but he didn’t play any These days, out of work musicians aren’t buying instrument, make repairs or even socialize with instruments. “It’s terrible. They lost all their gigs,” says customers. “He was never a schmoozer. He wasn’t a Borden, who with his wife, jazz musician Rie father figure [to young musicians] like Izzy Young,“ Yamaguchi-Borden, started Gotham Yardbird Slatnick says, explaining why Halpern is mostly left out Sanctuary, an organization funding jazz shows for of history books. Slatnick, on the other hand, readily unemployed performers. With less sales revenue, jumps into deep and personal conversations, is a another film shoot could be a lifeline for the store. In talented musician and artisan who skillfully repairs, recent years, in addition to “The Marvelous Mrs.

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Maisel,” CBS’s “God Friended Me” and Apple TV+’s plagues. He commissions Isaac Bois, a young artist “Little Voice” have filmed at the store. But Foley says who lives in temporary housing in the Bronx to make production companies are still hesitant to shoot in the illustrations. It isn’t just pocket money, Slatnick cramped spaces due to social distancing. Only gives the isolated artist a sense of purpose and a instrument repairs have held steady. “People staying creative outlet. The store owner himself, however, is at home find old dusty instruments,” says Slatnick, “or hesitant to ask the community for help. He hasn’t done a musician who can’t afford a new guitar just fixes the any fundraising like the GoFundMe campaigns of many old one.” small businesses. Borden, who has owned three successful Jazz clubs, isn’t concerned for his friend Sales have started to improve, Slatnick says, but the Slatnick. “Tell him not to worry,” he says with the pandemic has highlighted “the digital divide” in the confidence of a jazz man. “He’s a rich man. Rich with music world. While brick-and-mortar shops suffer, music.” Reverb, the world’s largest online music marketplace, reported record sales. Slatnick, who uses the store’s – original 1958 mechanical cash register, says he can’t Andrew Silverstein writes about and is compete against Amazon, nor does he want to. “Music co-founder of Streetwise New York Tours. needs real human connection,” he argues.

“Some guy comes and says, ‘What’s that drum?’ I’ll say, ‘Jansen go play it,’” Slatnick says, referring to Jansen Bennet, a regular who tours playing the Indian tabla and Albanian çifteli, amongst other instruments. “He’ll play and sing in Arabic for 20 minutes. The guy will see what you can really do with the instrument and pick up some tips. You can’t do that online.” Create a Future for

If not Bennet, there’s always someone to strum or Courageous Jewish bang on the store’s hundreds of different instruments. Journalism Neighborhood old-timers come to play tunes and pass time playing chess. Before the pandemic, younger The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in musicians grabbed ouds off the wall or freestyled rap American journalism. Our outstanding reporting at the weekly open mic. Often, at Slatnick’s side is on cultural, social, and political issues inspires Chuck Williams, a boxing journalist who hosted a readers of all ages and animates conversation across generations. Your support enables our YouTube show from his housing project hallway. critical work and contributes to a vibrant, Since Slatnick fell from a ladder a few years ago, the connected global Jewish community. taller Williams reaches for the high-hanging instruments. The two met in the 1990s on the famed The Forward is a nonprofit association and is West Fourth Street basketball court where Slatnick supported by the contributions of its readers. was nicknamed “Rabbi.” On the weekends, Slatnick and Andy Dowty, a graphic designer, handcraft electric To donate online visit sitars and zarodes with unique horseshoe shapes. Forward.com/donate Almost daily, Slatnick’s 32-year-old son Coulee and his friends come by. To donate by phone, call The Music Inn is more than a clubhouse for musicians and artists. It’s a place of community support. Call 212-453-9454 Throughout the pandemic, Slatnick has occupied himself by creating a comic book series about the 10

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News What ultimate Frisbee can teach us about Jon Ossoff By Talya Zax

It’s a muggy day in Atlanta, sometime in 2004 or 2005. Jon Ossoff takes off toward the disc. He’s sprinting, but it stays just out of reach.

So he digs a cleat into the ground and throws himself forward horizontally, a lithe streak in flight.

Faster in air than on foot, Ossoff gets his fingers on the disc and clutches the rim. He lands on his torso; it’s graceful, or as graceful as you can be when you’ve just flung your body at the ground at full speed. There’s no time to bask: young Ossoff jumps up, passes and takes off running again.

That’s a layout — one of the flashiest, most rewarding plays in ultimate Frisbee. There is nothing like it, the glory when it works and the defeat when it doesn’t. It’s a bold move, high-risk and high-reward. And Jon Ossoff, varsity ultimate player at Atlanta’s Paideia High School and future Senator, could really kill a layout.

“If he was a 6 or a 7 out of 10 on a whole slew of skills, then he was like a 9 in that moment where you’re closing and actually leaving your feet,” recalled Grant Lindsley, a Paideia teammate of Ossoff’s and a member of the U.S. men’s national team. “He could lay out pretty big.”

“You could make the parallel that’s exactly what happened in the election,” Lindsley said.

At 33, Ossoff is now the senior senator from Georgia, a Democrat who eked out a victory in a longstanding Republican stronghold in January’s historic runoff. which, like laying out, is the realm of those who just Picture the race literally: Ossoff and the incumbent, refuse to quit. Sen. David Perdue, dashing down a field, aides straggling sweatily in their wake. Ossoff, who first “I could put him on really strong players on really good made national headlines when he lost his bid for an teams and he would do really well,” said Michael open House seat in 2018, started from behind. Baccarini, who created Paideia’s program in the early Somehow, when the dust cleared, he held the disc, 1990s and still coaches it today. winning by just over 1%, or some 55,000 votes. You could do worse in the department of political Ossoff’s other great ultimate skill was defense — metaphors.

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All sports shape character, but, as almost any semi- reassessed. serious player will tell you — I was one, once, so I know The Paideia School, which currently has about 900 — ultimate Frisbee does so more intensively than most. students in preschool through 12th grade, was in the And at Paideia, a scrappy private school that during vanguard of schools to develop serious ultimate Ossoff’s tenure managed to field one of the best teams. Baccarini, who began playing in the 1970s, teams in the nation, that was amplified. came to the school as a physical education teacher; “We were a small school going against juggernauts,” introducing the sport was a natural extension of the Baccarini said. “We knew we had to train harder, not job. just physically.” By the time Ossoff arrived as a middle-school student, Part of that training, he explained, was in learning, Paideia’s high-school squad was about to become the deliberately and sometimes painfully, how to push kind of team that teenaged ultimate players across the forward as a group, with players making the big country talked about in hushed tones. If you played on individual moves — the ones that end up in highlight a moderately good team and came across Paideia at a reels — only when they served the team. tournament, you tried to talk yourself out of assuming you would lose. Usually, you lost anyway. “Ultimate,” Baccarini said, “gives us the practice of being better citizens.” “Paideia didn’t have a football team, so in place of the number of athletes that might have played football, all If you think of ultimate — the sport’s official name, of those numbers were occupied by ultimate players,” since “Frisbee” is trademarked to a toy company — as explained Lindsley, who last saw Ossoff at a wedding the kind of goofy pastime reserved for summers at shortly after the unsuccessful House race in 2018. Camp Ramah, a sort of athletic cousin to hacky sack, “Something like a quarter of the entire high school was you’re not alone. In 2008, the tragically defunct blog probably playing ultimate.” “Stuff Jewish Young Adults Like” deemed it “the un- official sport of the Jewish people.” It was ranked That included Alisha Kramer, who began playing at fourth, beaten only by ironic Jewish-themed t-shirts, Paideia in sixth grade, went on to captain her college Isla Fisher and voting. team at Georgetown and play highly competitive club ultimate, and in 2017 married Ossoff. “What do I value But while ultimate may remain a goofy pastime in above all else about ultimate?” she wrote in a 2010 some quarters, it’s also much more. essay. “It is without a doubt the people and the Invented in the late 1960s by a New Jersey teenager, community.” Joel Silver — who went on to produce “The Matrix” — The pair began dating Ossoff’s senior year, when ultimate is an international phenomenon. There are Kramer was a freshman. “It definitely was a little quadrennial world championships, run by the scandalous,” said Lindsley. wonderfully named World Flying Disc Federation; 39 countries from six continents participated in the 2016 Ossoff, a gifted athlete, didn’t get sucked into ultimate games. American college and club tournaments air right away, instead focusing on baseball. Once he on ESPN. made the switch , he started on the junior-varsity squad, then carved out a place on varsity his senior And, sometimes, players do the kind of astounding year. He went on to play at Georgetown athletic things that fuel lifelong devotion among both University through his junior year. players and fans. In my early teens in Denver, I thought ultimate sounded kind of dumb. Then my Ossoff’s time on the Paideia team was a pivotal brother made me watch a video of a University of moment in its ascension, with a younger group of Colorado game in which Beau Kittredge jumped players, including Lindsley, starting to push to the next straight over a guy standing at full height, and I level. Proof of their frankly insane momentum: Of the

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24 players on the American men’s squad set to play in system offers a glimmer of hope. this summer’s world championships, three — Lindsley, After all, his wife, while captain of the Georgetown Chris Kocher and John Stubbs — are Paideia alumni women’s team, opened that 2010 essay with a quote from the roughly half-decade of dominance that from Howard Cosell, as straight a shooter as has ever followed Ossoff’s graduation. covered the world of sports. “In the grand scheme of things, he was a pretty “Ultimate,” he said, “is a refreshing reminder of what significant player on a really good team,” said sport was meant to be, and on a rare occasion, still can Baccarini, the coach. be.” In ultimate, being a significant player means So: Who was Jon Ossoff, member of one of the best something slightly different than in other sports. high school ultimate teams in the country? Individual skill matters: if you can, say, launch yourself directly over the head of another human, you will likely He was “an extremely hard-working athlete,” said be considered fairly good. But teamwork matters Baccarini, who always called Ossoff “Jonathan,” not more: The rules mandate that the disc be passed at Jon. “It makes sense that he ended up becoming what least every 10 seconds, which makes it practically he’s become; it’s all about determination, grit, being of impossible for one or two stars alone to take a team to higher mind. You gotta really elevate your laser focus the highest levels of play. to be a great defender.”

And what matters equally, making ultimate so Ossoff particularly excelled at zone, in which players uniquely formative to so many who play it, is the spirit guard a section of the field, rather than another player. of the game. He primarily played in the cup, the group of players who try to stop the offense from passing the disc At every level, from elementary school to professional, downfield. It’s the position that Baccarini himself ultimate is almost entirely self-officiated. Players point favored as a player. “I took great pride in sort of being out violations that they see, experience or even cause, the anchor of the defense,” he explained, “because and both sides have to agree the violation occurred for everybody plays off the wall you put in front of them.” it to fully count. If they don’t, play resorts to a sort of half-penalty. The disagreement is incorporated into In the right moments, when Paideia was at its most the game, not punted to arbiters on the sidelines. playful — part of what defined teams of that time, “The grace that allows us to exhibit, if we buy in, is Baccarini said, “was how much fun we had” — Ossoff fit transformative,” Baccarini said. right in. Ultimate’s culture is centered on the ethical core of self officiation, but a large part of the spirit of If you don’t take the responsibility of self-officiation the game is about being willing to truly play with your seriously — if you’re inclined to lie, fight, or act the opponents. victim — people notice, and stop giving you chances to show off those instincts. It doesn’t matter what other (“The amazing aspect of the sport and the defining skills you bring: Violate that cardinal value, and you’re feature,” Kramer, Ossoff’s future wife, wrote in on the sidelines. In ultimate, you’re either successful that 2010 essay, “are the friendships that are made at owning your mistakes, or you’re genuinely bad at with the opponent.”) the game. Paideia’s team, now known as the Pythons, was then It’s hard to imagine a more poignant counterpoint to called “Gruel,” and took delight in the kinds of weird, the world of politics, in which the act of admitting a often nerdy rituals that make up part of ultimate’s mistake is anything but the coded norm. So for those character. A standard Paideia cheer at the time, of us who are alienated by the self-serving cynicism Lindsley said, consisted of one person yelling “three!” that often seems to define the United States Senate, and everyone responding “point-one-four-one-five- Ossoff’s training in that kind of radically different value nine” — the first six digits of pi. The culture was,

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Lindsley said, “pretty tight-knit, pretty loving.” Ossoff, In my own ultimate days, that grace — not the triumph who he described as “fun and pranky,” fit right in. of a big catch or a shutdown defense — was the best part of play. It was a reminder of the point of the thing, It was already clear where he was headed. “Everybody a reminder of something to strive for. who knew him knew that he was gonna be a politician in the future,” Lindsley said. “Same jawline, same – haircut, same kind of demeanor. He is who he appears Talya Zax is the Forward’s innovation editor. Contact to be.” her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax .

When Baccarini felt, after a 2004 loss to Amherst Regional High School, that Paideia needed to put a more intense focus on physical fitness to keep up, Ossoff established himself as an unofficial leader on the team, despite being fairly new to varsity. He had a knack for spreading his own immense drive and “really demanding,” Baccarini recalled, “that everybody be sprinting every leg of every drill.” Create a Future for Voters have seen some of those sides of Ossoff, Courageous Jewish already. Journalism There’s the hard work and infectious ambition: a 2017 JTA article about the so-called Ossoff army, a squad of The Forward is the most significant devoted volunteers, depicted the neophyte candidate Jewish voice in American journalism. getting formerly shy Georgia Democrats entertainingly Our outstanding reporting on cultural, amped about qualities like being “sane and moderate.” social, and political issues inspires There’s the sense of play: Ossoff went viral the day he readers of all ages and animates was sworn in for displaying an impeccable, painfully conversation across generations. Your charming wink on the Senate floor, an unusual support enables our critical work and moment of real fun in a normally stultifying contributes to a vibrant, connected environment. global Jewish community.

Now the question is whether, as at Paideia, Ossoff The Forward is a nonprofit association can jump into a new role and quickly begin to and is supported by the contributions make change. of its readers.

There’s promise, sure: No Ossoff army, and no Senate seat, would have been possible without his ability to get things moving. To donate online visit Forward.com/donate But the stakes are higher now.

What might we hope for? There’s Baccarini’s idea of To donate by phone, call grace, that ultimate is a sport that, at its best, pushes players to excel in the moment when they must decide Call 212-453-9454 how to react. We’ve missed that grace in our politics lately, missed the sense of a leader pausing to make the right choice instead of the easy one.

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Letter from L.A. Is Pudu Pudu Nazi pudding? How Dr. Oetker came to terms with its past By Sarah Fuss Kessler

When Max Goldblatt noticed a high-end pudding shop opening in L.A.’s uber-hip Silverlake neighborhood, he had a few questions. For one thing, a high- end pudding shop? Also, did that sign in the window really say: “Since 1894” ?

“In this neighborhood, you see signs on bars and restaurants that brag, ‘Since 2011,’” Goldblatt, a seven- year Silverlake resident, said. “It made me wonder, how is it possible that I’ve never heard of this hundred-year-old pudding company?”

To solve the mystery, Goldblatt hopped on the Pudu Oetker spokesperson who oversaw the project, Jörg Pudu website, a slick and bubbly number featuring Schillinger, told the Forward that with public photos of elaborate bowls of pudding with elements speculation growing, the family took action as soon as such as edible fresh flowers and blue spirulina. Instead its patriarch, Rudolf August Oetker, passed away. of vanilla and chocolate they offered, “Giggle in the Dark” and “Wow in the Wild.” Schillinger said the family gave the scholars “complete freedom and independence for their research, and Clicking on the About section, Goldblatt learned that whatever they would find out would be accepted by the name of Pudu Pudu’s parent company was Dr. the family, even if it would be painful, and it was, Oetker. And from there, it was a quick trip to Wikipedia indeed.” where he was taken aback by information about the German corporation’s Nazi roots. Not only were two Once the 624-page document was completed in 2013, presidents of Dr. Oetker very active in the Nazi party, the company made it public. but the company also supplied Nazi troops with The history is fraught. Dr. Oetker was founded in 1894 munitions, baking powder — and pudding mix. in the German city of Bielefield by a pharmacist named Goldblatt saw that Pudu Pudu was setting up more August Oetker, who is said to have been the first in locations on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice and in Germany to sell longlasting baking powder and to Century City. He wondered: Was Nazi pudding coming package it, as well as pudding mix, into individual to L.A.? servings.

Any German can tell you that the Oetker Group is a While he did not join the Nazi party, his successor did. megacorporation that produces frozen cheese pizzas, Richard Kaselowsky was the stepfather of Oetker’s Black Forest cake mix, and scores of other prepared grandchildren, whose father had died in the battle of foods sold across the globe. Think of it as the Bavarian Verdun. As Kaselowsky helped grow and diversify the Pillsbury. company, he joined the Nazi Party around the time Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933. In 2008, the Oetker Group itself commissioned historian Andreas Wirsching and his team at the Subsequently, Kaselowsky became a member of University of Augsburg to investigate and write a Freundeskreis Reichsfuehrer SS, an association of history of the corporation’s World War II record. The businessmen and Nazi officials convened by Heinrich

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Himmler, who ran the Nazi’s paramilitary group (the at American Jewish University. SS) and was central to the organization of the The “perpetrating generation” felt innocent, said Holocaust. Berenbaum, and the generation now in charge is the Kaselowsky made large donations to Himmler and, one that feels responsible. “Some of the most during World War II, supplied Nazi troops with Dr. important work in coming to terms with the Holocaust has been done by them. They have confronted their Oetker’s powdered food products as well as grenades past in a way that is powerful and honorable.” and machine gun parts from a Dr. Oetker subsidiary that exploited the labor of enslaved people. Volkswagen and Daimler-Benz are two other famous German companies that have commissioned extensive In the meantime, the grandson of August Oetker, historical reports into their roles in the Third Reich. In Rudolf August Oetker, was drafted into Hitler’s army 2019, after a magazine expose, the Reimanns, who and, in 1941, volunteered for the Waffen-SS, the own Krispy Kreme, Panera, a majority stake in military branch of the SS that patrolled concentration Intelligensia coffee, and so much more, pledged $5.5 camps, participated in most major military campaigns, million to Holocaust survivors and $5 million more to and perpetrated extensive war crimes. the people forced to work for their company during World War II. Rudolf August trained for an administrative role in the SS at the immediate vicinity of the Dachau But 19 years ahead of the Reimann family’s monetary concentration camp. Historian Sven Keller, a co-author reparations, the Dr. Oetker company gave an of the Oetker study, called Rudolf August’s choice an undisclosed sum to the EVZ Foundation established by “ideological decision” when he spoke to the Irish the German government to benefit forced laborers. Times in 2014. “You didn’t sign up for the Waffen-SS if In 2015, the Oetker family also decided to audit its you weren’t convinced that Nazism was the right extensive art collection for pieces Rudolf August thing.” procured unethically, an undertaking more commonly initiated by art institutions. Schillinger said that the Rudolf August never came into active SS service project is still underway, and that so far 10 artworks because, at 28-years-old, he was called home in 1944 have been identified and settled with the heirs of prior to run Dr. Oetker when his stepfather, Kaselowsky, his owners, through restitution or compensation. mother, and two stepsisters died in their home during an Allied bombing. “If the Oetker report is like the Volkswagen report, which I have read, which was first-rate, and by A year later, British forces arrested Rudolf August and honorable historians — and if the family has donated held him in a prisoner camp until the denazification funds — and if they have also given back art — then kol hearings. He was permitted, in 1947, to return to the hakavod,” historian Berenbaum said, using the Hebrew family business. phrase for high praise. “We can’t ask any more.”

Under his leadership, the company boomed into a Berenbaum said he wasn’t sure how Dr. Oetker could multibillion dollar conglomerate. Not until 1981 did his best convey the complicated truth about its past to eldest son, August Oetker, take over as general customers while it expands its presence in distant L.A. Best practices for such a scenario don’t seem to have partner of the executive board. The patriarch, Rudolf been established yet. August, remained head of the advisory board until his death in 2007. “We don’t know how this company will integrate themselves into the community,” “The paradox of the Holocaust is that the innocent feel Berenbaum said. “But we need companies like this as guilty and the guilty feel innocent,” said Michael models for precisely what we should do with ill-gotten Berenbaum, the scholar who oversaw the creation of gains, whether from the Holocaust, or American the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. slavery, or another atrocity. If this company and now runs the Sigi Ziering Institute, which explores commissioned an honest history, I would welcome the ethical and religious implications of the Holocaust, them. I would buy from them.”

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Culture A fond farewell to , rabbi of a radical radio congregation By John Kalish

I’ve been a member of two unconventional congregations in New York.

One was in the East Village and was financed by several lawyers in the Bronx. Hardly anyone paid dues but our Hasidic rabbi still fed his gaggle of converts, Baal Tshuvahs and crusty geezers, including a Jew known as Murphy who once had a pushcart in the neighborhood. The shul’s caretaker was a veteran of the East Village squatter scene. He scared the bejeezus out of me one shabbos: after drinking a few l’chaim’s, he showed me an AK-47 he kept at the shul.

It may sound hard to top that but the other congregation I’ve been part of was even wackier. Here’s what services sounded like: three disparate Hasidic nigunim are chanted simultaneously; congregants expound on the burning moral issues of the day; musicians strum; poets ramble; the wicked rant and the righteous plead. And The Rav, standing at Bob Fass. Photo by Getty Images the bimah, baton in hand, conducts it all.

This congregation was known as The Cabal and it Like many, I was entranced by that sonorous voice mostly existed in the ether over the broadcast signal that could go from gentle to urgent in the course of a of WBAI-FM, though there were actually a few sentence. At the time, Fass provided a platform for a occasions where hundreds or thousands of us west coast conspiracy researcher named Mae Brussel. assembled in Central Park, Kennedy Airport, Grand In my dorm room one night I listened as she reported Central Terminal and the holy streets of the Lower “troop movements on the mid-peninsula” near San East Side. Francisco. Was a coup d’etat underway in America?

The Rav was Bob Fass and, for more than 50 years, he Just as riveting were the intimate performances by soothed and infuriated his flock at a station that has singers and musicians who sat with Fass in the control been viewed with some degree of truth as not good for room and performed live. The list includes Joni Mitchell, the Jews. Odetta, Carly Simon, Taj Mahal, the Incredible String On Saturday, April 24, The Rav left us. His 87-year-old Band, Moondog, the Holy Modal Rounders, Phil Ochs bones will return to dust in a Jewish cemetery in North and Bob Dylan. Carolina, far from New York City where he spent most If you want a good example of the musical magic that of his life. happened on “Radio Unnameable,” find the Tiny Tim I started listening to Fass’ late night show “Radio performance on YouTube. Right after finishing one Unnameable” when I was in college in the early 1970s. song, Fass asks if he knows the Beatles tune

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“Norwegian Wood.” Without missing a beat Tiny Tim the CBC. starts strumming his ukulele and singing a falsetto For many years, I wished that I could help Bob Fass version. I witnessed another such moment when make a living at his craft but he clearly wasn’t wired to Loudon Wainwright III was on circa 1985. Fass came function in the straight world. Many of our public radio out of record and opened the mics in the control room. colleagues managed to create careers in the audio “So, how you doin’, Loudon?” he asked. book industry and I often wondered whether Fass could parlay that wonderful voice and the fact that he “I’m alright,” Wainwright replied. And with that Fass was a trained actor into work as a narrator. pressed the play button on a CD deck in master control and the title track on Wainwright’s then new But one of his WBAI friends who went on to become a album “I’m Alright” started playing. “I woke up this Grammy Award-winning audio book director morning/ didn’t feel that bad…” exemplified the attitude of many that Fass was a huge talent but too much of a dope-smoker and an There was live comedy performed as well, some of it anarchist to function in the commercial world of by the brilliant satirist Marshall Efron or a new act publishing. known as Stiller and Meara. Professor Irwin Corey was still dropping by into his 90s and smoking weed with His wife Lynn had a job as a law librarian that kept Fass when the microphones were off. them afloat but at one point in the early 2000s she was laid off. So friends put together a benefit in 2005 I brought Jimmy Breslin by one night and as I squeezed at a restaurant in Tribeca that raised several thousand by his chair to bring headphones to another guest, dollars. Among the attendees were Steve Post and bumped into a metal rack full of broadcasting gear. Larry Josephson, two of BAI’s live radio stars who The resulting loud gong, Breslin wrote in a newspaper credit Fass with inspiring them, as well as a such column soon thereafter, was reminiscent of Radio colorful characters from Fass’ counter-culture travels Peking. as the Yippie pie-thrower Aaron Kay and A.J. For a spell I served as the Weberman, the garbologist who many would say show’s choreographer, arranging the appearances of became a bit preoccupied with Bob Dylan. Breslin, Wainwright and others. It was after Fass’ five- Fass was quite enamored with the Minnesota Bob. He year exile from the radio station he loved, beginning in played Dylan records constantly on “Radio 1977. He had been arrested and carried out of the Unnameable.” Fass told me that someone in Dylan’s Upper East Side church that then served as WBAI’s entourage regularly sent him cassettes with home. There had been a bitter staff strike that recordings of live shows. Dylan had already arrived in included an occupation of the station’s studios and New York before Fass started doing his show in 1963. then its broadcast closet in the Empire State Building. Go online and listen to a January Fass had ill will for those of us who returned to the 1966 Dylan appearance on “Radio Unnameable” when station after the strike, some of whom signed a the great folk singer jokes with listeners calling in. statement apologizing for the revolt. I was a staff “I’m a folk singer!” Dylan declares in faux outrage to reporter at the time and had practically no contact one caller. “I refuse to be hurt!” with Fass until he returned to BAI in 1982.

When the “Doonesbury” musical opened on Broadway “Why are your songs so long?” a female caller inquires. in 1983, I helped him get a gig doing the voice-over for “I get paid by the word,” Dylan explained. a radio commercial promoting the show, which was directed by Jacques Levy, Fass’ old pal. I went as Fass’ One year, my wife and I invited Fass and his wife Lynn recording engineer to Yoko Ono’s home at The Dakota. to a seder here in the Kalish loft. He came bearing She had once had a show on WBAI. I was also able to videos, one of Bob Dylan performing at the Vatican help sell an interview Fass did with her to NPR and and another of Abbie Hoffman making gefilte fish from

A fond farewell to Bob Fass, rabbi of a radical radio congregation 12 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM scratch. In Fass’s mind, this was totally appropriate Culture content for the time when we remember the Exodus from Egypt. From ‘Shtisel’ to ‘Tiger

I interviewed Bob Fass many times over the last 45 King,’ the secret TV years, the first being for my senior project in college. bingeing pleasures of I have long realized that despite his difficulty cooperating with The System, The Rav is a very wise America’s Jewish clergy man. The black hats in Borough Park would surely scoff at the label of tzadik for him but he told me one By Esther D. Kustanowitz of the most profound things I’ve ever heard and that We look to spiritual leaders to guide us through is, “We are all held together with just so many challenging moments and inspire us, but where do band-aids.” they turn to for their own source of inspiration? Streaming services. I asked him once how he would sum up his career, The Rav responded: “What I do is entertain and “This past year has been hard in new ways, and when spread compassion. I sit in a room and have great you live at your job and your job is often to help other thinkers, musicians and comedians talk to me. It’s people make it through the difficulties of life, I rely on been great.” TV and pop culture to entertain me and allow me to The Cabal really does exist. I swear it. sit and consume without effort,” said Rabbi Jillian Cameron of Los Angeles LGBTQ synagogue Beth Chayim Chadashim.

“Judaism is engaged in telling the greatest story of all time, the story of the human spirit and our relationship to ourselves, others and God,” said Rabbi Create a Future for Joseph Shamash, a 12-year veteran of the TV and film industry who now serves as spiritual counselor and Courageous Jewish Journalism manager of Beit T’Shuvah’s Elaine Breslow Institute in Los Angeles. “Hollywood sometimes does a better job The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in American journalism. Our outstanding of retelling these stories than our religious leaders, reporting on cultural, social, and political issues myself included. We can typically relate to characters inspires readers of all ages and animates in TV or film and see a part of ourselves in the story or conversation across generations. Your support the hero’s journey,” he said. enables our critical work and contributes to a vibrant, connected global Jewish community. Of the 11 Jewish clergy members (Conservative, The Forward is a nonprofit association and is Reform & Kohenet) surveyed for this article, all had supported by the contributions of its readers. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video; ten had Disney+; nine had HBO Max; eight had Hulu; six Apple TV +; To donate online visit and Peacock, Paramount +, Starz and ChaiFlicks (all Forward.com/donate submitted as part of the “other” category), all ranked with one each.

To donate by phone, call Obsessed with ‘Shtisel’ Call 212-453-9454 The most mentioned series across the survey was the Israeli Haredi family drama “Shtisel.”

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“Shtisel might be the most outright Jewish content, but Of true crime and ‘Tiger King’ that lifestyle seems so foreign to me that it’s not relatable,” said Rabbi Jason Miller, True crime documentaries and series were also a draw. of MitzvahRabbi.com in Detroit. “I watch it more as an “I appreciate the escapism and relief of other people outsider looking in out of curiosity. Truthfully, problem-solving on a high-stakes level,” said Rabbi watching ‘SNL’ or Seinfeld’s ‘Comedians in Cars Hilary Chorny, Cantor of Temple Beth Am in Los Getting Coffee’ feels more Jewish at times.” Angeles, whose favorites included “I’ll Be Gone in the The show’s “insider look into a faction of our religion Dark” and “Murder on Middle Beach.” She added that often spoken about as if they are aliens is really TV has provided “a reminder of the craft of storytelling interesting,” said Cantor Lizzie Weiss of Temple alive and well amidst awfulness.” Emanuel of Beverly Hills, CA. “I think the Cameron said crime documentaries, especially the writers/directors did a fantastic job of giving these ones about Scientology and the NXIVM cult, teach her characters real problems. It doesn’t stray from the more about “both the best and worst of humanity.” everyday real life obstacles that we all experience,” she said. Weiss added that the characters are “It is so easy to abuse your power as a religious leader, constantly on her mind. “It is hard to get out of the whether purposely or because of ego or ‘Shtisel’ fog. I want to know more.” thoughtlessness,” Cameron said. “We have the ability to help, comfort, teach, inspire people and our “I love turning off the translations and practicing my communities and we also have the ability to Hebrew,” Rabbi Sherre Hirsch, Chief Innovation Officer manipulate and harm them. We are given an enormous at American Jewish University, said of “Shtisel.” “It amount of trust and I think about the privilege and makes me feel like it is time well spent.” deep responsibility of that trust, about the choices I Rabbi Susan Goldberg, founder of L.A. spiritual make and why and the balance I am trying to achieve community Nefesh said she watched the sitcom “The in new ways after watching the profoundly harmful Good Place” – which imagines the afterlife and results of cults.” examines moral behavior through a philosophy lens – Early-pandemic Netflix offering “Tiger King” became a with her teen kids, one of whom even did some national sensation for its story of murder and exotic philosophy reading as a result. animal exploitation. For Miller, who blogs about Jewish “I think every clergy person and philosophy professor content in pop culture, it raised questions about ‘tza’ar loves this one,” said Goldberg. “Such great ba’alei chayyim,’ the Jewish guidelines for ethical conversations about ethics and death and dying.” animal treatment.

Rabbi David Wise, of Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center “Were these entrepreneurs who deserved to make a in Queens, NY, said he’s used pop culture content in buck by running tiger zoos or were they being cruel sermons: citing a scene from “Madam Secretary” in a and abusive to living creatures?” he asked. “How is High Holy Days sermon and using “Kim’s their tourist destination different than the local zoos Convenience,” a Netflix series about a Korean- we visit and support?” American family, to highlight the similarities between Korean and Jewish immigrant narratives in response to ‘Jewish vampire show? Yes please.’ anti-Asian attacks in the US. Rabbi Jesse Olitzky, of Congregation Beth El in South Cameron said she opened a sermon with a recap of Orange, NJ, said he loves Marvel- and superhero- an old “West Wing” episode: “Lifelong goal achieved,” related content for how it enables him “to disconnect she said. with the real world into a world of make believe.”

From ‘Shtisel’ to ‘Tiger King,’ the secret TV bingeing pleasures of America’s Jewish clergy 14 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

Olitzky, who co-hosts the Pop Torah podcast, added punished. And I pretend that if I weren’t a rabbi, I that Marvel’s recent TV shows connect to real world might have made a good detective.” events. Weiss, who often talks about TV on her weekly “Think “‘WandaVision’ dealt with grief, at a time during this About It Thursdays” program, has been particularly pandemic when so many have dealt with loss, and ‘The interested in recent portrayals of Jewish doctors on Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ deals with the racial “Chicago Med” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” injustices of this country. Following the murder of “No longer [are characters] the white, cis gender male George Floyd and the [rise of the] Black Lives Matter Jewish doctor,” Weiss said. “These two doctors Movement, it’s important to address issues of injustice represent the variety of Jews of color, Jewish people in every area of storytelling.” with personality disorders, and Jews of varying Rabbi Sarah Bassin of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills sexuality that is more common today.” said she is drawn to home renovation programs “Just when you think that there really is nothing new “because I secretly want to be a contractor instead of under the sun – thanks, Ecclesiastes! – people surprise a rabbi,” and to late-night monologues from Stephen you and create amazing things,” said Cameron about Colbert, Seth Meyers and Amber Ruffin because she today’s TV offerings. “I love to feel like I’m a small part “loves digesting news through a comedic lens.” of that just by watching them do it. Perhaps it is an Kohenet Ketzirah Lesser, a teacher of the sacred arts odd way to find hope for the world and humanity – but and a corporate priestess ordained by the Kohenet I will certainly take it where I can get it.” Hebrew Priestess Institute, named Canadian sitcom – “Letterkenny” as “funny and progressive,” Apple TV+’s Esther D. Kustanowitz is a Los Angeles-based writer, editor “Ted Lasso” as “hopepunk in full effect,” and has been and consultant. She co-hosts The Bagel Report, a podcast revisiting “Arrested Development” on Netflix “as a light about Jews and popular culture, and speaks about way to end the day.” She also proclaimed NBC’s #TVGoneJewy, a term she invented to describe the increase of “Young Rock” as “funny with a message,” and named Jewish content on television. Follow her on Twitter @EstherK. Israeli vampire show “Juda” as a favorite. “Jewish vampire show? Yes please,” she said.

Goldberg, whose leadership often centers on cross- cultural dialogue and social justice, said she found “I May Destroy You” – Michaela Coel’s critically acclaimed HBO series about a writer uncovering the details of her sexual assault – to be “a powerful show [about] memory and reality and trauma and healing Create a Future for and claiming your voice.” She called “Last Chance U,” Courageous Jewish “a great docu-series about young people trying to do big time sports in the community college system,” and Journalism recommended the HBO series “The Lady and the Dale.” “I have lots to say about that one: truth-telling and To donate online visit complexity and anti-trans bias,” said Goldberg, who was an adviser on the Amazon Prime series Forward.com/donate “Transparent.” To donate by phone, call Cameron revisits police procedurals like “CSI,” “NCIS” and “Law and Order” for their relative moral certainty. Call 212-453-9454 “More often than not, the bad guys are caught and

From ‘Shtisel’ to ‘Tiger King,’ the secret TV bingeing pleasures of America’s Jewish clergy 15